Charter School Has Site And Troubles

The first charter school in the northwest suburbs has picked a vacant Wheeling parochial school as its home, but those involved say it likely won't open by fall.

And Marilyn Keller Rittmeyer, an outspoken Thomas Jefferson Charter School Foundation board member, said Tuesday she may resign in frustration.

"This is ridiculous. I have been involved in this since 1995. It is now the middle of 1999. I can't do it anymore," said Keller Rittmeyer, the only original member of the board.

Representatives from the Archdiocese of Chicago and Beacon Education Management, a private school administration company operating the charter, will likely sign a contract Wednesday, said Peter Harvey, a Beacon administrator.

If all goes as hoped, the charter would occupy the former St. Joseph the Worker Catholic School on West Dundee Road, which the archdiocese abandoned four years ago.

But the charter group must put a new alarm and sprinkler system in the school. And it must build a fire wall to separate the school from the attached church if it does not want to put sprinklers in the entire complex. Beacon would front the $250,000 cost that would be repaid with local tax dollars and state funds, Harvey said.

In addition, the charter must get a special-use permit from the Village of Wheeling, Harvey said. Presuming a quick approval, contractors would need four to six weeks to do the work. Illinois law requires the charter school to open by Sept. 15 if it is to open this year, Harvey said.

"It looks very dim for an opening this fall, unless a miracle happens and we get public pressure on our side," said Keller Rittmeyer.

The Jefferson board holds its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Elk Grove Village Library. The board expects to reveal details about the contract with the archdiocese and any further information parents of the roughly 105 pupils enrolled might need.

The Jefferson School was proposed three times by its proponents from the Elk Grove Village and Arlington Heights area, but was soundly rejected 14 times by local districts. In the final round, the charter proponents went only to Elk Grove Elementary District 59, which still is in court challenging the charter's right to exist.

The state overturned the local rejection and made Jefferson School the first suburban charter and the first state-approved charter, granting it a 5-year life beginning with the 1998-99 school year.

That the group now has resorted to a building in Wheeling--outside the District 59 boundaries--will not likely sit well even with supporters. But Harvey said the school does not have to be within District 59's map, even though he hoped as much.

"The whole idea is most parents want their children in a neighborhood school," Mardell Schumacher, vice president of the District 59 board, said Tuesday.

The charter group found commercial, industrial and office properties in Elk Grove Village and Arlington Heights, but planning officials told Harvey they were unsuitable for a school.

Keller Rittmeyer said she believes public school districts are pressuring municipalities to be tough on charter applicants. Harvey blames legislators who supported charter school bills but are not supervising the implementation.

For parents who enrolled their children, such as Leonard Wilk of Elk Grove Village, it is more wait and see.

"I am all for the concept of the school, but I don't know about this now. Wheeling is a little farther away," Wilk said.